Group condemns capital punishment for drug offence, tasks govt on citizen’s welfare abroad

A CONCERNED group, United Nigerians In Diaspora (UNID) has condemned the recent execution of eight prisoners convicted of drug charges in Indonesia even as they called on Nigerian government to live up to its billing and show concern to the welfare of its citizens living in foreign countries.

This came on the heels of the execution of eight convicts in Indonesia on Tuesday, with four Nigerians among them, while government made no effort like its counterparts whose nationals were involved to save their lives.

Meanwhile, the NGO comprising of professionals, both home and abroad and aimed at providing succour to the downtrodden while also addressing the issues of the youth and anomalies in the country, disclosed that eight documented Nigerians and two others that are not are also in line to be executed on the same charges.

They gave their names as Izuchukwu F. Ezinoha, a.k.a Michael Titus Igwe, Kingsley Okonkwo, Uchenna Cajethan Onyenwuru, Eugene Ape, Humphery Ejike, Obinna Nwajiagu, Benjamin Onuoha and Ikenna Abanukwu.

Speaking at a press conference in Lagos yesterday, the group through its Public Relations Officer, Nwabueze Kenneth, frowned at the nonchalant and unconcerned attitude of the Federal Government throughout the process that led to the execution and the aftermath.

Nwabueze who disclosed the group’s total abhorrence of engaging in drugs and crime by the youths as shortcut to success, disclosed the organisation’s programmes aimed at enlightening the youths and getting them off the vice. He said their anger stems from the fact that while other countries and the international community, whose nationals were not among the executed were fighting for them to be spared, Nigeria, which has the large chunk of nationals, did not show any concern.

He went further to condemn the application of capital punishment for drug offences asking whether the many lives wasted has quelled the menace in the country.

He said: “The information reaching the UNID is that another batch of executions will take place soon and there are still 10 Nigerian citizens on death row in Indonesian prisons, three of whose names were on Wednesday, April 29, 2015 forwarded to the Nigerian Embassy in Jakarta as a notification of execution.”

“This brings us to the question: must it be capital punishment? Is capital punishment the only way the Indonesian government can contain drug trafficking in their country? Has capital punishment been able to quell the issue of drug trafficking in Indonesia? These are questions seeking for answers.”

“In as much as we commend the United Nations chief and some world leaders’ efforts to avert the capital punishment meted out to the drugs convicts, even though the whole efforts were to no avail, we feel very sad and disappointed that nothing was heard about our country Nigeria, whose four citizens were among those executed.”

“Therefore, we feel it’s high time our government rises to the occasion to ameliorate the plights of its citizens, no matter the circumstance,” he said.

The President of the group Dr. Paschal Nwabueze, berated the country’s embassies across the globe, stating that they are not effective and do not care about the citizens they represent there.